Simplified Computing

12 Mar 2004

Over the past couple of days, I’ve spent time cleaning up my office. The major task was unhooking the various computers I used to use and stacking them neatly in the corner of my office. This also wrapping up and putting away countless wires. I also removed a mini-rack from my wiring closet and placed it somewhere else in my office. I was able to use some of that space in the wiring closet for storage.

The fact is, I used to do a lot of technical support from my house. I had to be able to simulate networks and firewalls in order to troubleshoot customer issues. This means a lot of equipment. Some rack-mounted equipment, plenty of built and rebuilt computers of varying degrees of antiquity. It all had to be hooked up and ready to go at a moment’s notice. It’s a lot of crap that can generate a lot of heat. But those days in my career are, at the very least, taking a hiatus.

Today, my office only has three computers on at any given time: my computer, my son’s computer, and my work laptop. That doesn’t include the various switches and firewalls inside the wiring closet, but all of that stuff is quietly humming behind a closed door and doesn’t get in my way. Part of that is a result of just not needing so much equipment for my day-to-day computing needs, but it also stems from the fact I can use products like Crossover Office and Win4Lin Workstation to handle applications written for a Microsoft OS without needing to run Windows as my primary OS or needing to fire up a second Windows-based computer!